Sauber Barcelona Day 4

Barcelona, 24th February 2012 – Kamui Kobayashi was at the wheel of the Sauber C31-Ferrari for the final day of the first Barcelona test. It was another positive day for the Sauber F1 Team that evaluated further test items in the morning, did qualifying practice before lunch time and completed longer runs in the afternoon. This resulted in a total of 144 laps today.

Circuit: Circuit de Catalunya / 4.655 km

Driver: Kamui Kobayashi (JP)

Weather: Sunny all day, air 9-21°C, track 11-30°C

Chassis / engine: C31.02 / Ferrari 056

Mileage today: 144 laps

Fastest lap: 1:22,312 min (before lunch, soft tyres)

Giampaolo Dall’Ara (Head of Track Engineering): “It was another positive test day for us. We started in the morning with some further aero comparisons and set-up work. Before lunch Kamui did qualifying runs. Qualifying was actually a weakness of ours in the last two seasons and we have to resolve this. This obviously requires proper practice. Kamui started with the medium compound before he used two sets of soft tyres, and in the end he got his first taste of the 2012 super soft compound. He did his fastest lap on the second set of softs. This lap time now stands as the overall fastest for this week, but of course this doesn’t mean much because proper comparisons are never possible during testing with each team running different programmes. In the afternoon we did longer runs for race preparation.”

Kamui Kobayashi: “I’m quite happy. We achieved a very good mileage today. The set up changes we did in the morning meant an improvement in lap times, which, of course, is very positive. There is still a lot of work to do in terms of understanding the car and the different tyre compounds at different fuel levels, but we are working in the right direction. I think it was a good test for us.”

What comes next: For next week’s test, again in Barcelona, Sergio Pérez is set to drive on Thursday and Saturday, Kamui Kobayashi will be on duty on Friday and Sunday.